Top 10 brain-AFK plays in esports

Hello friends, here we are again with our next Top 10! This time, we’re taking you to enjoy plays where the players probably just turned off their brains and still got away with it successfully.

Every one of us knows it: we’ve had a long, hard day at school, university or work and just want to switch off a bit while gaming. Then we unconsciously start daydreaming and in those 3 seconds, we’ve ruined the match for our team, because we brain-afk face-check a bush or rush into the opponents without cover.

Well, it doesn’t only happen to us, but also to the pros. So don’t sweat it and enjoy these plays where the players were definitely brain-afk.

10. s1mple (CS:GO)

This action from our beloved s1mple doesn’t actually match his skills. But it’s reassuring to see that even the pros fail now and then. Surely s1mple thought of something, but what came out of it just screams brainafk. At the ESL One Cologne Simple tried to stab his opponent Nitro from behind to get the matchpoint. In fact, everything went wrong with the attempt. Either he was too full of himself or he was just brainafk and then made the wrong decision. Anyway, the whole thing looks nicer from Nitro’s perspective.

9. LaXInG: Operator Echo Roam (R6)

No one expected LaXInG to unpack Operator Echo at the Six Invitational. Echo is an operator who stays on-site throughout the round. He is usually on cameras, gathering information and relaying it to his teammates. Echo is indispensable, especially in the last 30 seconds of the game. His gadget can change the outcome of any round, even the ones that you supposedly can’t win anymore. Normally, he doesn’t roam the map looking for picks. But that’s exactly what LaXInG did. Not only did he use Echo’s Acog, he ran Jiggle Peaks with one of his Yokai drones to look for potential outliers. It’s not really what he’s made for, but in this round, this “tactic” worked, which seems a bit Brain-AFK. It’s not the kind of pick that should make it to the World Championships.

8. Mango (Smash)

During his Super Smash Bros. match in the quarterfinals against Hax, melee legend Mango looked for ways to upset his opponent. Mango is a player who is unpredictable and tends to play by his instincts, but as we all know, there is a fine line between genius and insanity. Almost as if he was mentally somewhere else entirely, Mango then literally dropped his defenses and ran to his certain death. However he did it, somehow the play worked and what first looked like he was completely brain AFK turned into a 5Head move.

7. NIKO misses with the Deagle (CS:GO)

During the grand final at the PGL Stockholm Major 2021, G2 came close to beating NaVi. At 2-on-2, NIKO was in a perfect position to secure a kill on s1mple. All he had to do was hit a headshot on him with his Deagle while the GOAT was just looking in another direction. Actually, his crosshairs were already right on his head, but instead of waiting a moment to be sure, he just fired brain-afk and wildly, following the motto “I’ll hit something”. Of course, he didn’t hit anything and this play became a meme.

6. coldzera (CS:GO)

At the Columbus Major 2016, coldzera made the most insane 4K that CS:GO has ever seen. It’s a little impressive how he gets four kills while jumping! Is it a kangaroo? Is it a frog? No, it’s just a hopping coldzera that somehow manages to hit all the enemies too. Is that still tactics or can that go away? While the idea itself was good, it doesn’t take many brain cells. More brain AFK and luck is almost impossible, even if it worked well for him this time. Sometimes even the heads of our opponents take a little break.

5. Explosive Charge unlock (R6)

In Rainbow 6 Siege you can place Thermit’s explosive charges on one side of the wall to destroy it. Against this, defenders like Bandit can help, electrify the walls to neutralize the explosive charges if timed correctly. But if the timing isn’t right, it’ll explode right in front of you and there’s nothing you can do but look away in shame. So in this play, you should be fully focused and just not brain-afk.

4. Bush facecheck (LoL)

How brain-afk can you be? “Yes” is what everyone who likes to run blindly into the bushes in League of Legends is thinking. This no-brainer is such a no-brainer. If you want to trap your opponents in the bushes, all you do is clear the vision and wait for an opponent to pass by. Or you are one of those who think “oh there won’t be anyone trapping in the bush, this is so Season 1 and I don’t have a Ward with me anyway”. For the oldest trick in League you really only need 2 brain cells and you’ll probably get a kill even if you’re completely brain-afk.

3. Eternal Envy Divine Rapier (Dota 2)

At the Dota2 finals of the Shanghai Major, Team Secret was down by two games and their carry “Eternal Envy” did everything he could to get his team back in front. After he and his team managed a crucial team wipe, “Eternal Envy” had enough gold to buy his next game-changing item. Everyone thought it would be Abyssal Blade, as it synergized perfectly with Slark’s Single Target Tear Down. Instead, he took a different path. For those who don’t know, Divine Rapier is a tremendously expensive item and an all-or-nothing coinflip. It increases right-click damage by a whopping 300, but if you die while holding it, enemies can grab the item off your corpse. All in all, it was an absurdly risky pick, but somehow it worked.

2. Boss fall damage in FPS

Who doesn’t know it? You’re highly focused and then you miss a ridiculous detail, like fall damage. So when you die because you jump out a window or fail to reach a landing, it’s another level of Brain AFK. The opposing team laughs at you and your teammates are so shocked they don’t even know what to say. Whether it’s in CS:GO, VALORANT, or Overwatch, it happens all the time that players underestimate the level or just don’t think about it. Or they just do it on purpose. So remember that next time you’re about to jump out of a window.

1. Spontaneous combustion (CS:GO)

When it comes to plays where the players were brain AFK, of course spontaneous combustion can’t be missed! In theory, of course, you know that the mollies in CS:GO are hot, but this little detail is still so often forgotten. That’s why Summit1g’s molly fail lands in first place, because here the brain was turned off right after the kill. If there was a feature on the mouse that made it get hot when you get near fire, players would have been spared a lot of Molly deaths for sure. Maybe it would have helped Summit too, as he won the clutch situation, but then ran through his own Molly and burned to death miserably. Typical brain AFK move that all of us have experienced.